Thursday, June 4

Fayose's thugs beat Punch correspondent to stupor in Ekiti state

According to latest reports, Punch correspondent in Ekiti State while going about his job yesterday, Wednesday 3rd of June, was descended upon by Governor Fayose's thugs who were keeping watch on the house of assembly complex, to prevent APC lawmakers from coming in to impeach the Governor.

The punch reporter, Kamarudeen Ogundele said his offence was taking photographs of women praying for peace in the State at about 200metres away. They descended on me, tore my dress and even the police couldn’t save me at first, he explained. According to Punch Newspaper, the Governor has however apologised for the offence of his thugs.

How Kamarudeen explained what happened to him below:

“I was about leaving the place when I saw the women praying for peace to reign in the state. I felt it was a spiritual approach to the trouble in the state, so I decided to take the picture. The thugs emerged from their hideouts and swooped on me.

“I kept shouting ‘I’m a journalist’ but they did not show me mercy as they pounced on me. They were like 50 persons kicking me all at the same time. They dragged me out of the car and continued hitting me. At a time, one of them went to carry a big plank of wood in an attempt to hit my head.

“Two policemen raced to the scene to intervene but they were overwhelmed by the mob. One of the policemen started shouting, ‘run, run, run, don’t let them kill you!’ I thought the end had come because they continued beating me. Luckily for me, a few among them felt they had beaten me enough and started fighting their colleagues to let me go. I capitalised on their disagreement and with the help of the police, I quickly escaped.”

The governor later called one of the leaders of the Nigerian Union of Journalist in the state to apologise for his supporters’ action. He also expressed regret over the mob action, Punch disclosed.